Nutrition clinics conducted for a period of time in hospital work have shown that malnourished children recover health and strength almost in direct proportion to their home control. Where there is complete control of the patients during the whole twenty-four-hour period, as in a child-helping institution, recoveries may occur in nearly 100 per cent. of all cases.
The fact that malnutrition is due only in a minor degree to poverty, to inheritance, to tuberculosis, to syphilis or to other obscure diseases, but in the great majority of cases is due to adequate causes such as physical defects, improper food habits, overfatigue and errors of home and school life, makes the work of correcting malnutrition, though partly medical, for the greater part educational. Therefore, theoretically at least, such work should be carried on in the school, where health habits and practical hygiene can be taught as a part of the school